Bags were packed and we were off about 10am, stopping to get petrol and a hash brown on the western ring road. With Ava’s habit of talking non stop in the car on any trip (let alone a long one) it was paramount that we entertained her early to allow us to get through the 2 hour drive. Before leaving I put together a map with her with a number of things that she had to find on the trip. McDonald’s was checked off pretty early and she was able to spot plenty of the animals, farm features and signposts on her list.

Tate man was right on sleeping time but he arched up soon after Craigeburn for a bottle. Marn was able to feed him while I kept driving. It was great to be out in the country again. I had been down the Hume countless times in the backseat as a child when heading to Benalla to see my Nanna and Poppa and our cousins and relatives.

Nic and I would play games, fight, sleep and be bored. It was always worth it as at the end we would have another adventure up in the country. (From this trip it is evident that kids in the city need to get out and spend time in the bush. Totally different lifestyle, away from the noise and the TV)

It is amazing how much you remember of the journey. Particular hills and features are burned into my memory. Noticeably where there was once a side of the road rest stop out of town there is now a service station and Macca’s.  The hot dog van that used to be there is no longer.

We turned at the Tullarook turnoff and headed to Yea. Again the scenery went up a notch. Also being a Monday it is a great feeling to not be at work and to be away from the desk. To have time with the family was one of the reasons for the trip. Especially to spend days on end with the kids.  Working does limit your time with them and at the end of this trip it is again something to take away and try to rectify.

We hit Yea and decided to have lunch. There was a packed bowls green and although the temperature was cold outside the the sun was shining. Quite a magnificent day.

We baulked at one coffee place for lunch and headed to another. Nice place but we paid for the privilege with $15 pie and salad each (including Ava). Marn was spewing as we really only wanted the pie and they weren’t that great. It did have a nice fire to keep us warm and Ava met the house cat. A big grey cat called Thomas. He was bunched up on a cushioned seat near the front of the shop. My poppa had such a cat on the farm at Benalla. Country cats are big. Poppa’s cat, “Puss”, used all his 9 lives as he was run over by the tractor about 5 times.

Back into the car and only another 20 minutes to Alexandra. We arrived at the farm stay just prior to town (Marn actually got us there with her map reading ability) and drove into the main house. The place didn’t look like a functioning farm but more for kids. Up on top of a hill overlooking a dam and the property. There seemed to be plenty of animals about. Marn jumped out and headed in to get the key. Next thing, out comes farmer Tom with a bottle of milk. He introduced himself to Ava and asked her to come out of the car and feed Lambie. What a great introduction to the farm. Ava was in her element and then was able to show Marn and I how to feed Lambie.

Margaret and farmer Tom we very welcoming and said “don’t knock just come in”. We were shown to our cottage. Very nice. 2 big bed rooms, kitchen, wood fire, gas fire and a big lounge room. Excellent.

Margaret then took Ava’s hand and they were off collecting the eggs - three in the afternoon from the chickens, turkeys, ducks and an assortment of other winged animals. Ava then fed the sheep and Chester the miniature horse. And did Chester have small man’s syndrome or what.

Ava was just getting to terms with the feeding of Chester when he bit her finger. More of a nip than anything and Ava put on a brave face until Marn asked her if she as alright and she said no and ran to mum for a cuddle and a tear. As we walked away from Chester he kicked the fence in anger. Margaret said he was saying “Sorry, please come back”, however I think he was saying, “Get back here with that bread, I aint finished with it yet.”

Later in the arvo Margaret pointed out a little black duck that didn’t seem to hear very well. She said it didn’t respond like the other ducks and they thought she was deaf. We pointed out that Ava had cochlear implants and Margaret decided to name the duck after Ava. We will have to check on Ava the duck when we go back next time.

During the arvo I had the chance to do some stop frame photography. Check it out. My first attempt. I tried to get one of the stars at night but after the first night there was too many clouds to see the stars. And do they have stars up in the country? The sky is totally different to Melbourne. It really is amazing.

At 4:30 we fed the cows (Daisy, Cookie), geese with the backpackers, Ferdinand from Germany, Lucy and Kevin from the UK. Ava led the way and helped out. She particularly like feeding the calves water in their water bottle. Great for her to meet new people and interact in that way. The backpackers help out on the farm in exchange for longer visas and food and lodgings etc. Not a bad gig.

Marn cooked up a cannelloni disaster. She wont mind me saying. We will need to figure out cannelloni when we get home. How do they make the shells go soft? We hooked into the chocolates to get us to morning while we attacked the 300 piece jigsaw. Fun.

The cottage was warm & cosy, especially the bed Marn and I slept in. Heavy doona and very soft bed. It was devine. Wish we could bring it home. Kids slept in our room as well. Not great when they decide to wake at 5am. What can you do? Ava was waiting to hear the rooster so she could go and let the chooks out and Tate was just being a rooster.

I got up with Ava about 6:30 to check if the roosters were up. We could only hear roosters down the road and not the ones on the farm. I thought they got up at the crack of dawn? We walked around the farm until about 7ish when we popped into the main farm house to get some milk to feed Lambie from Margaret. I thought farmers we up at the crack as well? Ava then went to get the girls from another cottage up to get the eggs. Lauren (10 years old) and Heather (6) came and showed Ava what to do. They found a few eggs including a shiny duck egg (which Ava brought back for show and tell at kinder). Did you know you can tell a duck egg from a chicken egg by how shiny it is? They then fed Lambie.

The kids were off to Lake Mountain to see snow for the first time. Ava went over to their cabin for a play and then they came to ours. Sparkly play dough everywhere.

We headed Into Alexandra for lunch. It was very quiet. 5 year old Ava found it hard to sit at the table at lunchtime. Then we headed to Eildon to have a quick look and the kids had a sleep in the car. On our return Ava fed the animals in the pouring rain with Lucy, Kevin and Ferdinand. Marn and I are always weary about Ava getting her hearing wet. But we rugged her up and she headed off into the rain. What an experience for a little girl.

A cold wet night. We decided to head to Healsville the next day. We said goodbye to our hosts and hit Healsville, but it was colder there. The drive took us through Marysville, where we saw the destruction of the bushfires last year. The town is totally different. The layout is new now and the amount of burnt trees is amazing. The regrowth takes the edge off the landscape but it is amazing how bad those fires were.

A fantastic trip and not our last to the farm stay and regional Victoria. Great to spend 3 days away with the kids and strife. For Ava and Tate to see some of our country, up in the country. We will return in Spring.

On returning to Melbourne it really struck me when I went to the front door of our house that it sounded like a 747 was flying straight down our passage way. Oh to have the quiet of the country back.

When Ad asked her today if she felt any different being 5, she replied “yeah dad, I feel more cofident” (confident). As they say, priceless.

Happy birthday precious Pickle. We love you so much. xxxx

Earlier in the week Nero was chewing his big marrow bone outside and next minute there was blood everywhere. He has snapped his long canine tooth in half and had to have surgery today to remove it. All will be fine in a few days but we are nursing one sad & sore hound at the moment.

And finally, our little man Tate has sprouted his first toothy peg today. Bottom left tooth has just made a slight appearance through his gum and we can feel a little sharp peg there. All the weeks of dribbling finally produced something. Seems like only yesterday he was born and now we’ve got the start of teeth & solids. Time goes so fast!

So we’ll need to get a 2nd job to boost the Tooth Fairy’s purse strings this month. Crazy times

Toothless Terror

Ava & Tate

Ad & Tate keeping warm at Bellbrae

The McNeill family visit

Ava, Megan & Will having fun at Bellbrae

The Hound

The little man had a runny nose and was waking up early but he was pretty happy in himself.

We finally headed to Bellbrae on Easter Saturday. Ava was a bit better in the morning but had the 6pm fever and for a few days was asking to go to bed at around 6ish…What!!! (Hey don’t worry, I’m writing this post a week after Easter and things have returned to normal).

Ava played with Megan on Sunday and Monday. She gets a bit cheeky when she has older company. Not sure why as Megan is not cheeky. I think somehow she gets excited or tries to be older than she is. A bit bossy. It has continued since we got home but we are working to get her to understand that Nah-Nah-Nah-Na-Na-Nah is not how you get friends. A learning stage but one I hope we can teach her out of. It may mean Ava is on her way to the UN. Who knows she may broker a peace between the Palestinies and Israelis?

Tate is growing up. He doesn’t like tummy time at all but is pretty good at sitting up and seems to have a strong neck. We will give him more time on his tummy over the next while to give him a chance to roll. Other milestones, he started blurting before Easter but that was only for a couple of days, he had his first shower - he did like it. He is a happy guy.

We joked over Easter that he looked like Bert Newton with his little tuft of hair. The Baldy Archi award winner seemed to hit the mark.

Baby Bert

Ava and Megan

Tate and Gran

Easter Sunday saw the Easter Bunny arrive. I think Ava may have been egged out as we still have eggs, 10 days after the event. The egg hunt inside was fun. “Mum I found another one….another one….another one.”

On Monday we packed up and met Will, Arnie and Penny in at Cameron Lings pub in Geelong. Took a little while to get a feed but the kids had fun running around in the park next to the pub.

Also another year that we didn’t get down to the Bells Classic surf comp. Kids were not well so it will be a must do in 2011.

Bellbrae is a great relax. We watched a few movies (Time Traveller’s Wife - good, and Dear Frankie - excellent indy sort of movie.), spent some time out in the yard (I did some work on the apple) and ate.

Ava: Mum, how do you make white?
Mum: You can’t make white Ava
Ava: Why not? Just tell me mum, I can do it
Mum: No its not a colour you can make, like primary colours, you can’t mix and make them. White is one of those colours
Ava (in an angry voice): Well that’s very rude of the world!!!

We were trying to hide our laughter and agreed that yes, it is very rude of the world to not let kids mix any colour their little minds desire.

We took Sienna with us and had a lovely couple of hours looking at the new seal enclosure, reptiles, platypus & meercats before the HUGE storm rolled in and we luckily made it to the car in time. Driving through it was an experience to say the least - we were holding onto the windscreen and watching hailstones the size of golfballs bounce off the bonnet. The sound was incredible and the sky was dark as anything. An amazing sight at 2pm in the afternoon.

Some photos from the last couple of days - Tate is changing all the time and getting so strong in his little neck & legs. He loves to be sitting/standing upright and looking around… especially to watch his big sister who he adores and thinks is the funniest person in the world.

Tate wore his AC/DC tshirt today to get into the spirit of things (thanks Tin & Mike). He’s now 12 weeks old, how quickly the weeks fly by. Such a happy, smiley baby - he’s found his voice and loves to goo, gaa and gurgle when we have a chat with him or he sees his big sister Ava dancing around.

We spent today at Scienceworks which has a new toy exhibit which was fantastic. The kids wore themselves out trying to race Cathy Freeman in the 20m sprint and the adults gave the physical challenges a good workout as well. Lots of fun.

Ava & Meg give Cathy a run for her money

Miss Pickle in control of the remote

The gang last weekend

Tate at 11 weeks

Ava doing her yoga at Granny’s house

Watching the cricket with dad will put him to sleep every time

Merry Christmas to all of our family & friends - we hope you’ve also had a great day and look forward to sharing 2010 with you. xx

The rose xmas tree

Ava & Tate

Santa’s cutest helper